Your Healthiest Year Ever!

By: Laura Roberson

You wouldn't ask an average guy to stand beside you at your wedding. After all, you want someone you can call your best man. Nor would you brag to your buds about your amazingly average sex life. (Then again, maybe you'd be perfectly happy with seven or eight times a month.) And you probably wouldn't tell your boss that you put "just average" effort into that critical project—unless, of course, you have only an average aversion to unemployment.

Guess what? Settling for average health is an even dumber move. That's because in the past half century, "average" health has come to mean overweight, sedentary, and significantly more vulnerable to illness than men were a generation or two ago. "Our bodies have changed over the years," says John Elefteriades, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale University's school of medicine. "We've engineered physical exertion out of our lives, and we eat all day. It's time for our bodies to revert to the way they're supposed to function."

Fortunately, this isn't the average men's magazine. We've scoured the latest research and talked to the nation's top docs to bring you two dozen strategies that can help you achieve chart-topping vitals. Follow our advice, and you'll re-engineer your body for optimal performance—in the bedroom, at the gym, and most important, on the exam table.

So go ahead, dust off your tux. In a few months, you'll be your own best man.

Protect Against Heart Disease

Tame That Temper
If you frequently find yourself flipping the finger at other drivers or yelling at the TV when your team tanks (um, Cowboys?), repeat this mantra: Lose my cool, lose my life. According to a recent study review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, angry outbursts are more likely to cause heart disease in men than in women. While the reason for the gender difference isn't clear, the effect on your arteries is: chronic inflammation that can lead to a chest-clutching clog. Can't manage your anger? Maurice Schweitzer, Ph.D., a psychology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, recommends eliminating the little everyday irritants in your life—that leaky faucet, your cluttered desk at the office, those unanswered e-mails lingering in your inbox. This way, when the bigger triggers hit—and they will—your short fuse won't already be smoldering.

Lower Your Heart Volume
Listen up: Is your work environment annoyingly noisy? In a 2010 study in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine,
people who were chronically exposed to loud noises while on the job
were twice as likely to have heart disease as those who toiled in
blissful silence. "Noise exposure may trigger the release of stress
hormones, which can constrict coronary arteries and reduce blood supply
to your heart," says study author Wenqi Gan, M.D., Ph.D. So interrupt
the aural assault by taking periodic "quiet" breaks of 10 to 15 minutes:
Wear noise-canceling headphones or go for a stroll to a less populated
part of the building. Also consider turning off the ringer on your phone
and muting your computer to eliminate the occasional shrill bursts of
noise.

Improve Your Sexual Health

Flex Your Sex Muscle
While your bulbocavernosus isn't the kind of muscle you can work in the gym (unless you want to be thrown out), it's worth training, especially if you suffer from premature ejaculation. "When this muscle contracts, nerves send a signal up your spinal cord to suppress arousal and keep you going longer," says Darius Paduch, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of urology at Cornell University. To find the bulbocavernosus, place your fingers behind your scrotum and try to flex the muscle there. (If you feel your stomach contract, you're squeezing the wrong muscle.) Now move your hand to your stomach, and while keeping your abs relaxed, begin masturbating. When you're about to reach orgasm, flex your bulbocavernosus. Once you get the hang of it, flex during sex. "This won't bring you from 2 minutes to 20 minutes, but you can definitely progress up to 5 to 7 minutes," says Dr. Paduch.

Practice Makes Perfect
Ejaculations don't just feel good—they're good for you. "I've seen men
lose up to 2 inches off their erections because they didn't masturbate
and have enough sex," Dr. Paduch says. "Your penis is basically a big
muscle—it will atrophy if you don't use it." His Rx: Masturbate as often
as you'd like to be having sex. "What really matters is having an
adequate outlet. Your penis doesn't care whether that outlet is sex or
masturbation."

Achieve Optimum Fitness

Show Her What She's Missing
Before working out, flip through photos of a former flame who broke your heart. A 2010 study in the Journal of Neurophysiology found that viewing images of a woman who spurned you activates the areas of your brain that control motivation and reward. "Rejection—that sense of loss—stimulates desire," says Christopher Proulx, M.S., C.S.C.S., an assistant professor of movement science at Westfield State University. "And this desire increases your level of adrenaline—the same chemical response that occurs in preparation for physical activity." This may enhance your focus and overall performance.

Lift with the Underdog
Believe it or not, seeing your buddy's scrawny biceps may be more
motivating than seeing some other guy's anaconda arms coiled around a
barbell. A 2010 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
found that people work about 30 percent harder when they're competing
against those they see as easily beatable. "Men produce higher levels of
testosterone when they're winning than when they're losing," says
Proulx. Also a factor: The chance that your less fit friend will surpass
you. "Which is more embarrassing," Proulx asks, "being beaten by
someone who's bigger than you, or someone who's weaker?

Stave Off Prostate Cancer

Eat Your Chicken Naked
Take hypertension out of the prostate-cancer equation by following our blood-pressure tips on this page, and then further manage your risk by skinning your favorite protein: chicken. In a 2010 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, prostate-cancer patients who ate the most skin-on chicken were more than twice as likely to face progression of their disease as those who consumed the least. By contrast, scarfing down any quantity of skinless chicken appears to be prostate-safe. Blame the fact that grilling or broiling poultry skin results in formation of heterocyclic amines, compounds shown to damage DNA in human prostate cells.

Recruit from the Farm Team
Almost everything in nature has a natural enemy, and for prostate cancer, it's cruciferous vegetables. A recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute
found that men who ate more than one weekly serving of broccoli or
cauliflower had a 25 percent lower risk of developing aggressive
prostate cancer. Credit a storehouse of anti-oxidants and
glucosinolates, bitter-tasting compounds that shield your DNA from
damage.

Tame Your Blood Pressure

Scale Back Your BP
Not only can regular trips to the fish market help your waistline, but a seafood diet is also low in sodium and rich in magnesium and taurine, two compounds that can slash your risk of hypertension, according to Japanese researchers. Seek out seaweed, a natural source of magnesium that can be added to soups (it's also commonly found in sushi), and freshly harvested, taurine-rich shellfish, such as oysters and scallops. Going fresh helps you avoid an unwanted shot of sodium-laden preservatives.

Prevent Skin Cancer

Respect Your Enemy
A false sense of confidence can be fatal: People who use high-SPF sunscreens tend to go out in the sun when it's stronger and stay there longer, putting themselves at a greater risk of melanoma than those who slather on a low- SPF formula, according to recent French research. "People mistakenly assume that if they put on high-SPF sunscreen, they're good to go the whole day," says David Leffell, M.D., a professor of dermatology at Yale school of medicine. His advice: Stick with a photo-stabilized SPF 30 sunscreen, such as Neutrogena's Fresh Cooling Body Mist Sunblock ($10, neutrogena.com), and set your watch or smartphone to remind you to reapply every 2 hours. Also, wash your beach clothes with SunGuard to increase the UV rating to 30 ($2, sunguardsunprotection.com), and throw them in the dryer before you head out—the laundering will tighten the weave of the fabric, providing extra protection, say Henry Ford Hospital researchers.

Uncover a Mole
Tell your wife or girlfriend you need to examine every inch of her
body—doctor's orders. Jump in the shower together, lather up, and before
you towel off, look her over for irregular, dark, or raised moles, or
sores that don't heal, says Dr. Leffell. Monthly self-examination may
catch melanoma earlier, when it's easier to cure, he says. Is she
balking at the idea of you playing detective with her dermis? Tell her
this: In a 2008 Northwestern University study, couples who were the most
satisfied gave skin exams that were three times more effective than
those of discontented duos.

Watch Your Body Weight

Never Assume "Healthy" Is Healthy
Beware the Subway diet: Diners grossly underestimate the calorie counts in "healthy" fast food, according to a recent study from Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. When people ate a Subway meal with as many calories as a McDonald's meal, they misjudged the Subway meal's load by 21 percent (159 calories). "Not only do you underestimate the amount you eat, but you end up indulging later because you thought you were so good at lunch," says study author Brian Wansink, Ph.D. His advice: Estimate the number of calories in your healthy fast-food meal, and double it. "You'll be a lot more accurate," he says.

Calculate Your Grains
Exercise won't offset the waist-inflating effect of white bread, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Among exercisers, those who ate refined grains daily had 12 percent more visceral fat—the most dangerous kind—than those who consumed the least amount of the processed stuff. The researchers also found that people who ate the most whole grains had 17 percent less belly flab than those who consumed the least. The catch: Continuing to consume refined grains offsets the fat-blasting effect of whole grains. Pasta, English muffins, white bread, and pizza are your primary offenders. Cut these carbs, and replace them with at least three servings of whole grains a day.

Fight Diabetes

Go a Little Nuts
Eating almonds can help ward off insulin resistance (a red flag for diabetes), according to a 2010 study in the Journal of American College of Nutrition. When people with prediabetes ate 2 ounces of almonds (about two handfuls) each day for 16 weeks, they experienced a 23 percent drop in fasting insulin levels, while those who said no to nuts saw a 19 percent increase. The credit goes to oleic acid, a fat that triggers the release of GLP-1, a peptide that can improve insulin sensitivity.

Look Forward to Commercials
Some health threats can be beaten using brute strength: A recent UCLA study found that lean people with low muscle mass are 67 percent more likely to be insulin resistant than their more buff counterparts. Having a sculpted physique may help your body use insulin to regulate blood sugar, the researchers say. Our advice: Cut your TV time to an hour a day, and during commercials, crank out a few sets of body-weight squats, lunges, or pushups.

Lower Your Cholesterol

Pop a Pistachio
Eggs aren't the only shells you should be cracking. In a new Penn State study, people who ate two servings of pistachios a day slashed their LDL (bad) cholesterol by an average of 13 percent. "Phytosterols in nuts act almost like a drug—they bind cholesterol in the GI tract and block its absorption," says Paul Ziajka, M.D., Ph.D., a clinical lipidologist with the Southeast Lipid Association. Why pistachios? They pack a higher concentration of phytosterols than any other nut, according to a 2005 study from Virginia Tech.

Beat Depression

Watch Your Diagnosis
Why are so many more men being medicated for depression than actually suffer from it? Part of the disparity is due to the fact that SSRIs (the most commonly prescribed antidepressants) help treat other problems, including premature ejaculation and migraines. But that still doesn't account for all the scrips being written, says Michael Addis, Ph.D., director of the Men's Coping Project at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. "There's a lack of knowledge about what these drugs are appropriate for—and many illnesses have symptoms that mimic depression, including thyroid disorders and celiac disease," he says.

Compounding the problem is the fact that a third of primary-care docs say they won't ask about mental health at all, and half say assessing psychological issues causes them to lose time and money, reports a new study by University of Cincinnati researchers. That disinterest may prompt a lot of knee-jerk prescription writing. "Don't let them jump to a quick diagnosis," Addis says. And if you have any doubts about whether your blues are truly depression-related or instead a symptom of something else, seek a second opinion—from a psychiatrist or psychologist.

Un-Friend Depression
Facebook may actually be the antisocial network. British scientists recently found that Internet addiction is linked to a greater risk of depression and is often characterized by overuse of social media sites. "People make positive, sound-byte-caliber posts on Facebook—'the changing leaves are beautiful,' 'I just heard an awesome song,' and so on," says Addis. "The discrepancy between what you're feeling and what you think everyone else is feeling can make depression worse. You can develop a pretty stilted view of the world." Consider "hiding" your most Pollyannaish pals, and then strive for perspective by bumping up your real-time interactions. "Facebook needs to be supplemented by face time and phone conversations, so the unscripted truth can unfold more completely," Addis says.